Information on Reading Difficulty (Dyslexia) and Vision

~ A Few Points for Parents to Consider ~

• Vision (the ability to see) has definite impacts on a child’s ability to read. Obviously the child must be able to see the print in order to read it. Children who can not see print accurately will likely struggle with learning to read.
• If you have any concerns with your child’s vision, you need to have your child evaluated (a complete, comprehensive exam) by an eye doctor or eye care specialist. Children with poor vision absolutely need to receive proper intervention, treatment, correction or other necessary treatments, therapy or care.
• If the child’s vision is normal or has been corrected (example - prescription glasses) to where they can see the print accurately, the difficulty reading (dyslexia) needs to be addressed with effective reading instruction. No matter how effective or necessary for improving vision, vision treatments do not develop reading skills.
• It appears there is little evidence (scientific valid research  based evidence of efficacy) vision therapies and devices such as tinted lenses or color overlays specifically targeted for treatment of dyslexia actually improve reading. This does not say there is no place for any vision therapy treatments or there are no benefits from vision therapies to improve vision.  This says the specific ability of vision therapy, colored overlays and lenses to improve reading skills in dyslexic/struggling readers is not proven by valid research.  This statement does NOT address effectiveness of vision therapies for other vision objectives.
• The Joint Organizational Policy Statement of the American Academy of Optometry and the American Optometric Association specifically states “Vision therapy does not directly treat learning disabilities or dyslexia. Vision therapy is a treatment to improve visual efficiency and visual processing, thereby allowing the person to be more responsive to educational instruction”.
• Be aware, there is controversy and debate both for and against the effectiveness of various vision therapy treatments and devices to treat reading difficulties. Professional organizations including American Academy of Pediatrics and American Academy of Ophthalmology and American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus have conflicting viewpoints with the professional American Academy of Optometry and the American Optometric Association. Parents need to carefully evaluate the information and look at the proven effectiveness of vision therapies and devices that are targeted specifically to treat dyslexia.
• When searching for effective intervention to help dyslexic students learn to read, parents need to consider the valid science and neural research. The science and valid research reveal reading difficulties are related to neural processing of language not to vision. The valid research based evidence and neural science show effective direct systematic phonologic based instruction is effective in improving reading skills and changing neural processing pathways to correct phonologic processing. Direct systematic phonics programs are proven effective in helping students learn to read. Please see the article Direct Systematic Phonics Proven Effective:Why Parents and Teachers Should Use Direct Systematic Phonics. Additional research information is found in the article Summary of Key Research Findings.
• Incorrect reading strategies such as ‘whole word’ visual recognition, searching for known ‘word families’, and hopping around a page looking for familiar words, often result in observed erratic eye movement when reading. The absence of smooth straight line left-to-right visual processing of print (processing all the letters in order) is often a direct symptom of the incorrect reading strategies. See the article Directional Tracking Explained: Why Directional Tracking is Essential for Reading Development and How to Teach Your Child or Student Proper Directional Tracking  for additional information on this subskill essential for proficient reading.

Right Track Reading encourages parents to research information. Links to several resources you may want to begin with include:

Joint Statement: Learning Disabilities, Dyslexia, and Vision American Academy of Pediatrics, Section on Ophthalmology, Council on Children with Disabilities, American Academy of Ophthalmology, American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus and American Association of Certified Orthoptists. This was published online in August 2009.  An abstract of the statement may be found at http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/pediatrics;124/2/837

The full article can be found HTML version or the PDF version

This joint statement updates the previous American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement: Learning Disabilities, Dyslexia, and Vision: A Subject Review  published in 1998 and  reaffirmed in 2008. This older version of the policy statement is found at   http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;102/5/1217

This policy has been revised by the 2009 policy listed above.

Vision Therapies for Learning Disabilities: an article by EyeCare America, a public service program of the Foundation of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, http://www.eyecareamerica.org/eyecare/treatment/alternative-therapies/vision-therapies-learning-disabilities.cfm

Vision, Learning and Dyslexia A Joint Organizational Policy Statement of the American Academy of Optometry and the American Optometric Association http://www.aoa.org/x5420.xml

PubMed contains several abstracts to specific articles addressing vision therapy and devices in relation to dyslexia. PubMed is a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine & includes over 17 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles.  

Learning disabilities, dyslexia, and vision: a subject review. Committee on Children with Disabilities, American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS).

Vision, learning and dyslexia. A joint organizational policy statement of the American Academy of Optometry and the American Optometric Association.

Remember, this article ONLY provides general discussion related to teaching children to read. If you have any concerns about your child’s vision, you need to take your child to an eye professional for a complete, comprehensive examination.

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This article was written by Miscese Gagen a mother with a passion for teaching children to read proficiently by using effective methods. She is also a successful reading tutor and author of the reading instructional programs Right Track Reading Lessons and Back on the Right Track Reading Lessons. The purpose of this article is to empower parents and teachers with information on teaching children how to read. We CAN improve reading proficiency, one student at a time!  More information is located at www.righttrackreading.com ~ Copyright 2010 Miscese R. Gagen